Letters: Which candidates will deliver for working families?; Cruel and unusual punishment

Which candidates will deliver for working families?

Since the 2023 election season began in earnest, we’ve seen an unfortunate resumption of what voters hate most: partisan squabbling, bitter attacks and hyperbolic rhetoric that makes little sense to the average voter looking for candidates that will improve their lives and deliver for their communities.

Tough campaigning is good. Politics are a full contact sport, and voters have no illusions about that. But campaigning should clarify the choices that are available to voters, and the different visions of what our future can be. Campaign politics should be about clear and substantive differences in what candidates offer.

Working families are struggling right now: struggling to keep up with the cost of living, struggling to pay for medical bills, and struggling to ensure that their kids have a better future than they had — something more in doubt now than any time in recent memory. Too many students at Penn State are working long hours, on top of their studies, just to ensure they can pay their tuition and their rent: a task made more difficult by Pennsylvania’s astronomical higher education costs.

Seven Mountains Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, is focused on that, not the bickering. We want to know who’s going to deliver for those families and those students, and what their vision is to accomplish it.

We look forward to working with candidates who speak directly to the needs of working families, and who have a plan to deliver for them.

Cruel and unusual punishment

Governor Tom Wolf bravely imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2015. I was pleased to learn that Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would not sign any execution warrants and also called on state lawmakers to repeal the death penalty in Pennsylvania.

There is no way to tell how many of the 1565 people executed in the USA since 1976 may have been innocent. But it is now broadly accepted that judicial review has been inadequate to prevent the execution of at least some prisoners, about 20 at last count, who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. This is totally unacceptable.

I was asked by a condemned inmate to witness his execution in Michigan City, Indiana, in July 1996. Ziyon I. Yisrayah (aka Tommie J. Smith) had been involved in a despicable crime in 1980 that resulted in the murders of an armed guard and a police officer.

We justify doing awful things like lethal injection because people like Yisrayah have done awful things. I don’t want murderers, arguably the worst among us, to set the standards of conduct for me. Or the government that represents me.

It was a gruesome ordeal to watch. The primary procedure of putting a catheter in two of Yisrayah’s extremities could not be completed, so a catheter had to be put in his foot. The state needed 69 minutes to perform the deadly procedure. Cruel and unusual punishment indeed.

I hope there is never another execution at Rockview State Prison!

Urge lawmakers to support Farm Bill reauthorization

One important legislative item that will need to be reauthorized during the current congressional session is the 2023 version of the Farm Bill. Although most sections of the Farm Bill support agriculture and farmers within the United States, four Farm Bill programs are directed at international aid to relieve world hunger and promote sustainable agriculture across the globe (Title II Food for Peace, The McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, Farmer to Farmer and Food for Progress). These programs are critically important in combatting world hunger and helping farmers in developing countries to engage in sustainable, environmentally sound agriculture. Currently, millions of people, especially in the southern hemisphere, are facing food insecurity and famine because of both natural disasters (droughts and changing weather conditions due to global warming) and human conflicts including the war in Ukraine. Reauthorization and adequate funding of the international components of the Farm Bill will play a critical role in preventing children, women and men from starving to death.

Fortunately, those of us in central PA have the power to impact the Farm Bill reauthorization through Rep. Glenn Thompson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, and Sen. John Fetterman, member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Given their roles on these important committees, Rep. Thompson and Sen. Fetterman have the potential to significantly impact the Farm Bill reauthorization. Please join us in contacting Rep. Thompson and Sen. Fetterman to encourage them to support and fully fund the international components of the 2023 Farm Bill reauthorization.

Keep a casino out of Centre County

I protest the site of the Nittany Mall — and in fact, I protest the situation of any gaming site, including the Native American casinos up in New York State. I believe that Nevada (Las Vegas) should be a prime example of gambling. The one and only Las Vegas. I think that the wealthy (and poor) should go to Nevada to lose their money.